I would love to see Criterion do a massive and loaded set of Satoshi Kon's work on BD, I would pay the hefty price tag for it. But it's sadly not feasible when so many different companies have the rights to his stuff.

Mind Game would be my top pick. It's a masterpiece, and it's absolutely insane that it's never seen a US home video release of any kind. The first time I saw it was at NYC's MoMA, so it's not like it's completely unknown over here by the artsy crowd who would be into Criterion releases. Still, wouldn't hope for much from a home video line that mostly snubs animation (and its auteurs, be they Mamoru Oshii or Brad Bird) in general...

I was just thinking about this. A Yuasa work would be lovely, or perhaps something by Satoshi Kon. I would love to upgrade from my Tokyo Godfathers DVD. Though, to be honest, I really want The Plague Dogs or Watership Down to receive treatments before these.

It's great that Criterion released Fantastic Fox, but I'm not getting my hopes up for future animated releases. It was an Anderson film after all.

Last edited by RestLessone on Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

I have both of those Patlabor sets (labeled at 07147 and 01007 respectively), and yeah it's pretty obvious how well they sold (or rather, lack there of). I paid only $12 each. They're nice releases, but I wouldn't have paid full MSRP, or much at all really. Actually, I'm not that big into the franchise, and only picked them up because I thought they looked interesting and the price tag for such premium releases was hard to pass up.

I love Criteron Collection, and I'm sure their Akira LD release was nice for it's time. They're the reason so many DVD and Blu-ray releases have so many extra features. Their 1985(?) release of King Kong was even the very first to have an audio commentary.

There's other great DVD/BD distributors though now, like Scream Factory (horror sub-label of Shout Factory), Synapse, and a few others. I'm not sure what the "Criterion" anime equivalent would be. The closest I could think is probably Nozomi. Their Utena sets are probably the best anime releases in my collection...

Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Sun Jul 27, 2014 1:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hells (Angels) did get made? I'd heard it was on the way, and was waiting for it --- the manga is great.

It's possible to get the storyboards for Angel's Egg, but I agree that it rates a Criterion release. Mind Game I'm not so sure about. It's great, but I'd settle for a Nozomi or Eastern Star-style release (though I suppose if Armageddon....).

For Criterion, if Yuasa could edit [i]Kaiba[/b] down to form a movie, that would be amazing (even if it were just removing the OP and ED to form a four hour movie).

Whoa! Thanks for digging into the story of the Patlabor sets. I thought something strange had to have gone on but now I know. I definitely picked up those Patlabor films last year and I absolutely love them.

Mind Game would be a great choice for a Criterion Collection release, for sure.

I would like to second Night on the Galactic Railroad.

I'd really love to have a deluxe edition of Giant Robo like the Japanese release. Don't know if giant robots would be in Criterion's interests, but it definitely deserves to not be forgotten.

The Criterion Collection lost most of its meaning as soon as they put Armageddon in it. .

That was back when:
A) 90's Disney, like MGM, couldn't give a rooty-patoot about this new "DVD" format, so Criterion, formerly Voyager Laserdisk, took up most of the slack, and
B) Michael Bay was a Criterion fan (and wasn't MICHAEL BAY yet), and, like David Fincher, licensed his title to them personally. Both Disney and Paramount would have a few things to say if he tried that today.

The Criterion Collection lost most of its meaning as soon as they put Armageddon in it. .

That was back when:
A) 90's Disney, like MGM, couldn't give a rooty-patoot about this new "DVD" format, so Criterion, formerly Voyager Laserdisk, took up most of the slack, and
B) Michael Bay was a Criterion fan (and wasn't MICHAEL BAY yet), and, like David Fincher, licensed his title to them personally. Both Disney and Paramount would have a few things to say if he tried that today.

Also the commentary on that Criterion Armageddon is fantastic (if you just want to hear Ben Affleck mock the film) and the essays inside on Bay's early years are great too.

It's possible to get the storyboards for Angel's Egg, but I agree that it rates a Criterion release. Mind Game I'm not so sure about. It's great, but I'd settle for a Nozomi or Eastern Star-style release

I don't know how much of this Mike covers, but a brief history of how "Criterion could do anime!" all got jumbled around in our heads:

- Disney's experiment (and studio obligation) to put Princess Mononoke in theaters blows up in '99, and Disney briefly claims they're done with Studio Ghibli in the US. At this point, fans are desperate, and they'll claim they'll take Ghibli on disk from ANYBODY, regardless of cuts or dubs.
- Anchor Bay acquires Roger Corman's New World catalog, including the Corman dubs of Angels' Egg and Warriors of the Wind, and taking the fans' side, announces they'll release dual-language versions. (Yes, fans debated how they'd cover the obvious edits in the JP-language, but who the heck cared?)
Every fan started joining in the wishful Stick It To The Rat party, until AB gets a short and to the point message from Ghibli: "Anchor Bay does not own Nausicaa." Unquote. Heheh, yeah, okay, I'll just...(puts it down).
- Criterion, as noted, takes up the slack for a lot of studios uninterested in DVD releases, and remains a company that can choose to release what it wants, so--this being the mythical 90's days of PetitionOnline--petitions spring up for "Tell Criterion you want Kiki's Delivery Service!"
(After all, they did a laserdisc of Streamline Pictures' public-domain Akira once! And we know they like animation, because they released Wes Anderson's stop-motion movie!)

Call me crazy but I could see them releasing Perfect Blue or Paprika. (Yeah I know they're owned by other companies but still) Since they put In The Realm of the Senses in, they could probably put something as crazy as Urotsukidōji in.

I've always wanted to see Criterion do a release of Only Yesterday. A Ghibli film seems like it would fit in with the sort of stuff they usually do and we all know Disney's never going to release it themselves, so it's always made a lot of sense to me. It's too bad that will never happen, but I'd be happy with more animation in general.

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